Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1887-02-10
SOUTH CAROLINA MooNsHINERS
They are Becoming More Active and are Defy
Ing the Revenue Officers.
Charleston News

Charleston News
The shooting of United States deputy
marshall EIkin, while on his way to join a
party of revenue raiders near CLASSY
mountain, few days ago, and the cap
ture of two blockade whisky sellers at
Piedmont on Saturday, recall to mind
the time, ten or twelve years ago, when
such occurrences we're every day happen
ings in this section, writes Greenville,
S. c.. CORES pondent of the Charleston
News.
Those were the days when Redmond the
bold outlaw, and the hero ST bloody raids
was in the zenith of his glory, and per-
haps no better illustration of the change
! in the condition of the section from then
/ to now could be given than the picture of
| the leader of the moonshiners as he was
| then and as is now, Then he was the
/ leader of the many bold and desperate
gang of men who were engaged in cheat
/ ing the government out of the tax on the
whiskey they were distilling from the
/ corn of their fields. He had killed his
/ man and price had been set on his head
/ for which he was bounded and hunted
releutlessly by the minions of the federal
/ government. His name was on every
| lip, thrilling accounts werece given of his
/ deeds and daring, and his notorlety was
! second to that OF the James brothers or
| Murrill the hIghwayman.
/ Now, the slide moves and the pictures
/ show the famous mooushiner peacefully
/ and quietly at work on his farm in the
rugged mountain section of upper Pick
/ ems, trying 70 restore the health and Wig
/ or wasted away by long term of con
/ fnement in Albany penitentiary. The
/ out law who had defied' the government
| from his mountain fastness was content
\ to petition piteously for pardon from a
republican president, and then 20 come
I home and live the life of a peace-loying
/ citizen.
I In those days the section around CLASSY
mountain, q spur of the Blue Ridge
/ crowned WITH a cliff of granite several
! hundred feet high was favorite stamp
/ ing ground" of the noonshiners. Since
/ the general amnesty offered by the govern
ment in 1876, and the arrest, trial and
conyictioa of Redmond, however, the
! business has declined.
Sitting has been carried on, but in a
quiet way. An occasional raid has sutlc-
cd TO keep the section tolerably clear
( Their raids we're not bloody ones as in
former years, when the revenue officer
was continually in danger and peril and
when q raid usually insured one or more
bloody skirmishes with the mooushin
. ers.
It has come to be al unusual thing foi
resistance TO be offered. and revenue
raids have come to be more like ''picnics'
than armed expeditions. Then too, much
of the old prejudice against revenue ON
GERS has worn away since the appointment
OF home men TO those positions ma
given the service more savory reputa
tlon.
Within a twelvemonth, however, tbs
blockaders have apparently sprung intI
renewed activity, and the firing on Dep
uty Marshall Elkin appears to intimate
temperance of the old spirit. hi
deputy had information that the rsldinE
party OF Deputy Collector Black, which
was in the neighborhood Of CLASSY NOM
tain, was likely to be STACKED, and haS
left the city in order to join the poss'
and give them warning. He was fred up